2020 Speakers

H.E. Khaled al-Fadhel

Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water

Kuwait

Mark McCollum

CEO

Weatherford International

Dr. Khaled Mahdi

Secretary-General

General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development of Kuwait

Sara Akbar

Chairperson & CEO

OiLSERV Kuwait

Sara Akbar has over 35 years of expierence in the oil and gas industry and is currently the Chairperson and CEO of OiLSERV, Kuwait; part of the OiLSERV Group, an indigenous oilfield services company operating in the MENA region. Furthermore, Sara serves as a Non-Executive Director of Petrofac [since January 2018].
In addition to her roles in the oil and gas industry, Sara is also a member of the Kuwait Supreme Council for Planning and Development and also an active member of the Board of Trustees of Kuwait’s Silk Territory project. In both capacities, Sara works closely with the Kuwaiti Cabinet of Ministers to set the road map for Kuwait’s strategy and the execution of its 2035 vision.
Furthermore, Sara has been the Chairperson of Advisory Board to the American University of Kuwait [AUK] College of Business & Economics [CBE] since 2016.
In the past, Sara served as Director on various Kuwaiti companies and industry Societies including the Society of Petroleum Engineers [ SPE], Kuwait Society of Engineers [ KSE], Kuwait Gulf Oil Company [ KGOC] and Kuwait Drilling Company [ KDC]
Sara held various senior positions at both government and private oil and gas entities. She started her career in 1981 working for Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and then at Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) where her roles included the Head of the Planning unit and the Manager of New Business Development.
In 2005, Sara co-founded Kuwait Energy, the first MENA-based private independent oil & gas exploration & production company. Up until December 2017, she served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Deputy Chairman.
Sara received many acclaims for her key role in Kuwait’s Wild Well Killers fire-fighting team which was responsible for extinguishing Kuwait’s oil well fires post the Iraqi invasion in 1991. The heroic act earned Sara the designation of ‘Firefighter’ and a ‘Global 500 Award’ presented by the United Nation’s Environmental Program. She was also awarded the prestigious ‘Leader in Energy’ award at the Women in Leadership Awards & Forum in 2009 recognising her as the first and only woman leader in the Oil and Gas industry in the Middle East. In 2013, she received the AIME Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal. Sara was named among the top 100 Most Powerful Arab Businesswomen of 2017 by Forbes Middle East. In September 2018 , she received the Hall of Fame award recognizing her as pioneer in Oil and Gas industry.
Sara received her Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering from Kuwait University and has amassed, throughout the years, a wealth of knowledge and experience

Rajeev Gautam

CEO

Honeywell PMT

Micheal Townshend

Regional President Middle East

BP

Luciano Poli

President

Dow Chemical India, Middle East, North Africa & Turkey (IMET)

Omar Saleh

Regional Director, Energy & Manufacturing, Middle East & Africa

Microsoft

Jose Bustamante

Executive Vice President Business Development & Strategy

Fluor

Paul Carthy

Managing Director

Accenture

Emad Alablani

General Manager – Head, Group Human Resources

NBK

Emad joined the National Bank of Kuwait on March 2003 where he started his career as a Manager heading the Recruitment Department. Moreover, he headed the HR Operations and then deputized for the General Manager of Group Human Resources. He has been officially appointed as Head of Group Human Resources for NBK on a General Manager level reporting to the Chief Executive Officer since October 2014. Before joining NBK, Emad has been appointed in several managerial roles at Kuwait University and Qualitynet, among others.
Furthermore, Emad is a member of various management and leadership committees at NBK, including but not limited to Information Security Governance, IT Board, Remuneration and Talent Management Committee.
Emad is a member of the Executive Committee that is in charge of bank wide key decisions and strategy and he is a member of the CBA Advisory Board (AACSB, MBA) at Gulf University for Science and Technology-GUST on January 2016.
Emad is an alumni from both Harvard Business School and American University of Beirut (AUB) after completing the General Management Program (GMP) at HBS and an Executive MBA at AUB respectively. Additionally, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Educational Psychology from Kuwait University.

Dr. Osamah A. Alsayegh

Executive Director of the Energy and Building Research Center (EBRC)

Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR)

Arda Atalay

Regional Sales Director

LinkedIn MENA

Arda Atalay joined LinkedIn Middle East in 2015. Based in Dubai, Arda is currently responsible for growing an in-house team and taking LinkedIn’s suite of Talent Solutions to clients across the Middle East & North Africa

A professional  with 24 years of corporate experience, Arda has held senior roles in Sales & Consulting leadership positions in major IT multinationals ; Oracle & SAP in Middle East region . Arda began his career in the financial services industry  as an auditor of PWC before moving to the IT world.

Prof. Isam Zabalawi

President

Australian College of Kuwait (ACK)

James Wimbury

Resources Country Lead - Kuwait

Accenture